is there any kind of "rule of thumb" that says basement doors/trim should/must be the same color as rest of house? we want to put white, 6-panel doors and trim in our newly finished basement but rest of house is light-color finished wood. Suggestions???

Ellen,

We are in the process of finishing our basement as well. We plan on doing the exact same thing as you're planning..We have 6-panel pine doors w/ pine trim upstairs..but the basement is going to be 6-panel white with white trim.. I don't think it matters what you do, its your house!!

DBLD

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

We are making plans to redo our basement and have been advised by some that it should match the rest of the house. Well, that would mean ripping out alot just to make it match (the previous owner remodeled using white trim on the first two levels and left the wood paneling & trim in the basement). I see this problem similiar to yours only on a bigger scale. My suggestion would be to go with the white because you specifically said that is what you want and then work in some wooden accents when you decorate to ease the transition between the basement and the rest of the house. I recently saw this done in white kitchen in Cooking Light. They added some wooden accents and a taupe paint to balance the stark appearance of the designer white. The combination looked nice. Good luck!

Personally I love the look of white trim/doors. Very clean and crisp looking. It's in your basement-it's not like your doing it in a room where the other trim and doors would be visable. So go ahead do what you like.

I'd like the wood better, but go right ahead. Does it really matter what anyone else thinks? LIGHTEN UP! (literally)